Monday, October 17, 2011

And then...

Fourth period today, class 2-3 (girls). Apparently one of the students who never brings her book and sits there combing her hair is so angry that she can't understand English that she wants to get a shot-gun and shoot me, my co-teacher and all the other students in her class. She wasn't joking. So apparently bad attitude is completely our faults and not hers. Sigh.

But talking about afterwards with the other teachers is interesting, and quite a bonding experience. It also shows a lot of cultural differences I think - talking about her, my co-teacher commented that she wonders what type of wife this girl Yeon-Ju will make and what kind of man she'll attract, and how awful she'll be to her children. Other teachers nodded quite seriously and one of them remarked that if this is what she's like now as a child, then she must be going to make a really awful adult, and everyone else nodded some more and tsked over how she's ruining her future. This is entirely true by the way - Korean students start getting streamed into their high schools from second grade and if you go to certain ones (mostly vocational high schools or high schools out in the boonies) then you have no chance of going to university. But apparently even acute educational failure and lack of personal depth does not exclude you from getting married and having a family (as opposed to getting knocked up) in the exact same pattern as everyone else.

Anyway, depressing students aside, that same class has also given me some interesting directions on how to get to their houses (a worksheet I gave them). These have included:
"go straight and walk apartment wall ant turn right that bow grandmother and Go straight and put your hands up! cross at the zebra crossing and turn left at the corner"
"Go straight. Turn right and cross the zebra crossing. Across the zebra crossing at the bakery shoe store goes to (cross the zebra crossing and go past the bakery to the shoe store). Buy flying shoes in shoe store. Wearing flying shoes go over the wall. And go straight. 'I'm home!'"
"Go straight and turn right at the corner. And hang on the tree like Tarzan. It's a little hard -_-;; And run fast than light (faster than the speed of light). Then, I arrive the home! ^_^"
"I will invest money to make a rail and take a ride in a train. I will go home!"
"My home is very near school. So I ride a bamboo helicopter!"
"Go straight and across at the zebra crossing and across at the walking road and get in the park and jump up to 12 floor (my home) and broke the window next get in the house."

Anyway. Tired. My plans for the afternoon will definitely include napping.

And just 'cos it's awesome, the 'Can't tell if...' Fry meme: (aegyo or babo? Aka '[is she being] cutesy or just stupid?') Haha, I feel like this is needed a lot in Korea ^^ Thanks Michelle for that one!